Courses

Course level: 100
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| 400IDS-104 Literary Foundations of Western Culture
Exploration of the development of major genres of Western literature and thought (from the fall of the Roman Empire to the 18th century), including epic and narrative poetry, drama, the novel, and literary nonfiction. Authors read may include St. Augustine, Dante, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Milton, Voltaire, and others. Through reading, writing, and discussion of complete works, the student is introduced to those humanistic skills and critical methods that have traditionally distinguished the liberally education person. Course not offered every year.

IDS-121 Introduction to Peace and Justice Studies
Multidisciplinary survey of issues, concepts, and approaches to peace and justice at individual, social, and cultural levels. Topics include models of peace, the nature and causes of conflict, theory and practice of nonviolence, arms and disarmament, international peace-keeping strategies, and the relationship between peace, human rights, and social justice. This course may contain a service learning and/or internship component.

IDS-150 Summer Service Learning

IDS-150 Service Learning Project

IDS-152 Youth and New Media in the Middle East
Explores the manifold ways in which Arab youth chart the course of social and political change in the Middle East through the use of new media and modern technologies. Discussions focus on the challenges Arab youth face in their 21st-century, globalized environments, and on their engagement with their regimes and societies, particularly in the context of the Arab Spring. Arab youth’s artistic and political expressions of voice and agency are approached as a barometer for the transformations in the region.

IDS-206 Native American Studies
Introduction to Native American culture, history, and identity with an interdisciplinary approach and attention to the on-going indigenous struggles since European colonization. Students consider issues of Native perspectives on the people-land relationship, religion, and contemporary cultural expression and politics.

IDS-208 Linguistics: Perspectives on Language
Introduction to linguistics and language pedagogy. The main goal of this course
is to learn ways of looking at languages to gain perspectives that are necessary in teaching languages as second, foreign, or heritage languages. Students learn about the nature of human language and become familiar with subfields of formal and functional linguistics, first and second language acquisition, bilingualism and heritage languages, and language pedagogy.

IDS-217 American Civil War on Film
An examination of how the Civil War has been presented by various American filmmakers from the silent era to the present. Students are asked to consider the various themes common to Civil War films: violence, race, politics, and iconography, among others. The class serves as an introduction to cinematic language systems while using Hollywood images of the Civil War as its central documents for analysis. Course not offered every year.

IDS-218 Global Media Cultures
Consideration of the current state of international media, combining theoretical approaches to globalization with case studies of films, websites and broadcasting systems. Lecture and discussion is complemented by live interactions (either in person or online via skype) with media producers from across the world. The course emphasizes the development of students’ abilities to merge theoretical insights with empirical data, allowing class participants to engage in original analyses of specific aspects of the rapidly growing world of international media.

IDS-219 Global Media Industries
Global overview of media industries in the world today. With a primary focus on cinema and TV, this course interrogates the political economy of the globalized media industries through economic, political, legal, and aesthetic analysis. Topics include the rise of multimedia, multinational conglomerates, followed by the impact of new technologies creating media convergence, and ending with sections on key global players in Europe and outside of the west.

IDS-224 Justice & the Contested Corporation
Introduction to continuing debates about purposes and legitimacy of the corporation in American society. Three contrasting conceptions of the modern corporation are critically assessed through justice and historical inquiry. Contested meanings of the corporation are studied using a variety of texts, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, autobiography, and social criticism. Course is designed as a cluster-friendly opportunity for students to fulfill the Integrative Thinking goal in the Gettysburg Curriculum.

IDS-225 Introduction to Disability Studies
Examination and analysis of disability within the context of diversity. Through interdisciplinary interchange and experiential learning, this course explores the biological, medical, social, cultural, political, technological and economic determinants of disability.

IDS-226 Media and Cultural Theory
Investigation of the major theories that guide the study of media texts and systems. This course aims to enhance the student’s ability to analyze film, radio, television, the Internet and video games from a perspective that emphasizes the cultural significance of these media. Through an overview of thinkers from traditions including structuralism, Marxism and British Cultural Studies, students will learn to write about specific texts in a manner that engages deeply with broader traditions of social thought.

IDS-241 Modern Irish Drama
Exploration of the evolution of modern Irish theatre within the matrix of the esthetic and political revolutions that occurred, and continue to occur, in twentieth-century Ireland. Irish dramatists have produced a body of literature remarkable for both its unparalleled artistic achievement and its acute political and social responsiveness. Major emphasis is accorded W. B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, John M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, Samuel Beckett, and Brian Friel. Course not offered every year.

IDS-246 The Irish Literary Revival
Study of the culture and history of Ireland as reflected in its literature in English, c. 1880-c. 1940. Course explores how Ireland, principally through her writers, succeeded in reviving and asserting her unique Gaelic identity during the decades immediately preceding and following the War of Independence (1916-1921). Authors studied include Augusta Gregory, W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, and James Joyce. Course not offered every year.

IDS-247 Modern Irish Literature
Survey of Irish literature since the 1940s. Course examines how poets, dramatists, and writers of fiction have responded to the problems of maintaining an Irish identity on a partitioned island and in the contemporary world. Special attention is given to the interrelationship of Catholic and Protestant and rural and urban traditions. Authors studied include dramatists such as Samuel Beckett, poets such as Seamus Heaney, and fiction writers such as Sean O'Faolain. Not offered every year.

IDS-250 Topics in Interdisciplinary Studies
Interdisciplinary analysis of one subject, topic, or discipline as viewed through distinct disciplinary methodologies or through the methods and inquiries of one discipline as viewed through the lens of another discipline. Course not offered every year.

IDS-255 Science,Technology & Nuclear Weapons
Study of the effect of technology on the many issues related to nuclear weapons and the scientific principles associated with their production. Coverage includes nuclear weapons effects, strategic arsenals, past and current attempts at arms control, environmental impact of weapons production, testing and dismantlement the post cold war climate, and nuclear disarmament. Special emphasis is given toward understanding current nuclear non-proliferation efforts.

IDS-278 Introduction to Arab Culture
This course will offer a general mosaic survey of the linguistic, geographical, historical, social, religious, cultural, and artistic aspects of the modern Arab world. Special attention will be given to the education, politics, family, gender relations, the Arab experience in the U.S., Arab American relations, the role of the past and of social change, and Arab art and music. The course also, analyzes and discusses Arab Spring and modern post-colonial concerns, problems and challenges. A good deal of the course is specifically intended to increase students' sensitivity to racial bias and sharpen awareness of multicultural issues.

IDS-280 Media and the Arab World
Study of the broad thematic and linguistic content of the media of the contemporary Middle East, especially news media and the new social media. The course examines contemporary social and political issues through an historical and cultural lens, focusing on such themes as dissent and revolutionary resistance, globalization and Arab mass media, media culture and political discourse, gender and national identity, media and social life, and youth culture, Facebook and the blogosphere.

IDS-282 Language and Conflict in the Middle East
Examination of the interrelationship of linguistics, culture and politics with emphasis on the interpretation of conflict. Readings examine how differences in pronunciation, vocabulary choice, non-verbal communication, and communicative style serve as social markers of identity and differentiation in Arab cultures. Emphasis is given to discourse analysis of news media, political speeches, regime and opposition media, blogs and Facebook communities, and virtual political dialogue.

IDS-284 Wonders of Nature and Artifice: The Renaissance Quest for Knowledge
Examination of Renaissance collections and the social context of their development. The course explores the quest for knowledge by Renaissance naturalists and collectors, whose wonders of nature and artifice were displayed in curiosity cabinets, gardens, and writings. The interaction of art and science and the role of economics, politics and culture are explored. Students engage in hands-on work, analyzing a Renaissance chamber of wonders at the Walters Art Museum and putting together their own "cabinet" in the Schmucker Art Gallery.

IDS-325 Interdisciplinary Course in London
An interdisciplinary course taught in London by a Gettysburg College faculty member during the one-month presession to the Gettysburg in England program. Topics will vary. The topic during the fall of 2010 will be Global Cities.

IDS-350 Topics in Interdisciplinary Studies
Interdisciplinary analysis of one subject, topic, or discipline as viewed through distinct disciplinary methodologies or through the methods and inquiries of one discipline as viewed through the lens of another discipline. Course not offered every year.

IDS-401 Senior Scholars' Seminar
Seminar for selected senior students addressing an important contemporary issue affecting the future of humanity. Approach to this issue is multidisciplinary. Authorities of national stature are invited to serve as resource persons, and seminar participants present a final report on the topics discussed. Course not offered every year.

ARB-102 Elementary Arabic
Elements of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Arabic. This course is a continuation of work begun in Arabic 101. Enrollment limited to those who have completed Arabic 101 or its equivalent successfully.

ARB-301 Advanced Arabic
Study of advanced level of Modern Standard Arabic with careful attention paid to all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing in addition to culture. Significant stress will be placed on vocabulary expansion, particularly during the second half of the course. Acquisition of more advanced grammatical structures will take place primarily through directed in-class practice, coupled with an emphasis on the functional use of language through communication in context.

ARB-302 Advanced Arabic
Study of advanced level of Modern Standard Arabic with careful attention paid to all four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing in addition to culture. Acquisition of more advanced grammatical structures will take place primarily through directed in-class practice, coupled with an emphasis on the functional use of language through communication in context.

JOUR-203 Journalistic Writing
Instruction in basic skills for writing news and feature stories. Students develop an understanding of what makes news; how to analyze news stories; how to conduct interviews and gather information; and how to construct stories, both in traditional and alternative forms. Trips to newspaper offices in the area are offered. Priority will be given to IDS students and writing majors/minors. Contact Professor Joel Berg for permission to enroll.

Law-250 Criminal Justice
Overview of the criminal justice system in the U.S. and the role of police, attorneys, judges, trials, and prisons. Primary goal is for students to gain an understanding of how the criminal justice system works in the U.S., both from a criminal justice studies and legal perspective. Major U.S. Supreme Court cases are read to illustrate the nature of legal reasoning and criminal justice problems, with each student having his or her own case to work on throughout the term.

Law-251 The Law in Film
Introduction to the application of law and legal reasoning by analyzing films as stories to which the law is to be applied. Students are asked to analyze elements of films based on the actual statutes, rules of evidence, and/or attorney ethics rules in force at the time and place that is the film's setting. Traditional law-based films are not the primary subject of this course, although several will be used to help understand certain legal principles.

Law-260 American Trial: Reality and the Media Mirror
Introduction to advocacy in the American courtroom, both in reality and in his media reflections. Trials will be analyzed as narratives, and then this analysis will be applied to the current year’s American Mock Trial Association’s competition case. We will be working in particular with the Rules of Evidence and how they can be used to further, or hinder, the attorney’s desired story. Students are not required to participate on the College’s Mock Trial team, although are encouraged to try out.

Law-352 Down By Law
An examination of law as a tool of oppression, beginning with the Code of Hammurabi, with its detailed class-specific codes, and working up through the various slave codes of the enlightenment era to modern times. Recent U.S. laws have attempted to rectify some of the oppression caused by US law in the past, and this course asks is it working or is it just another way to keep people down by law.

Law-369 Intergalactic Super Law
Course asks students to apply comparative law theory to the worlds represented in the modern fictional settings of superheroes and science fiction. While comparative law generally involves the consideration of theory as applied to EU countries, “Intergalactic Super Law” takes the Marvel and DC universes and the worlds in Star Wars and Star Trek as case studies to cogently argue that Gotham has a Continental as opposed to an Anglo-American System, or that the Empire under Palpatine followed Hindu law closely, drawing on real world global examples to sustain their arguments.